Pinchai Speaks During His Keynote Address at the Google I/O Developers Conference in San Francisco
Sundar Pinchai, Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps, speaks during his keynote address at the Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, June 25, 2014 REUTERS

Google unveiled the Android L v5.0 OS at the I/O 2014 conference. During the conference, the search giant showcased several new features the next-generation OS version has to offer. In addition, the official name of the OS version dubbed "Android L" was not announced. According to a brand new report, the "L" stands for "Lollipop"; there is also a video preview of Android L tested on Samsung Galaxy S5.

Google has not officially released the latest OS version yet; however, device manufacturers get to test the upcoming software releases earlier than the general public. Apparently, Sam Mobile was able to access Android L with build "LRW58J," pertaining to the Samsung Galaxy S5 with model number SM-G900F. The site points out that its staff wanted to release the firmware to the public. However, the staff did not push through with the plan due to numerous bugs in the build (alpha). They also said that the handset became extremely sluggish with the latest OS version on board.

However, Sam Mobile came up with an exclusive video preview of Android L featuring its brand new look and killer features. Notably, the preview features TouchWiz on Android L OS, but the TouchWiz UI is yet to be modified by Samsung to correspond with Google's Android L OS guidelines. Google has brought in a major design change with Android Lollipop and it is dubbed as "Material Design." Here are the standout points of the latest OS version tested on the Galaxy S5.

1. The user interface is fresh and the touchscreen experience has improved tremendously. Samsung has been using the blue theme straight from the Galaxy S2 days. However, the company has redesigned the look with a white theme. The aforementioned site opines that the white theme is very appealing to the sight. However, Sam Mobile says the white theme consumes relatively more power with the superior AMOLED display in tow.

2. Samsung's patented system apps like Dialler, Messages, Clock and Memo, among others, have been redesigned with Google's Material Design guidelines in mind. Also, Android L's brand new lock screen stands out. The lock screen prevalent in current-generation devices only show the date and time. With Android L, the lock screen also shows optional notifications. The flip side of bringing notifications to the fore, however, is widgets cannot be added to the lock screen.

3. There is also a useful "heads-up notification" feature that alerts users of incoming calls, SMS and even low battery notifications without disrupting the ongoing activity. Plus, there is a built-in clipboard tool that stores the record of screenshots and even the copied text.

4. MirrorLink support is also added in the latest OS version. As the name implies, this feature allows users to mirror their handset's screen to their car display.

5. Importantly, Google Android L utilises the new ART runtime,which makes the OS faster and lessens the lags in Android devices. Take a look at the video preview recorded by Sam Mobile:

[Source: Sam Mobile's YouTube channel]

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